Arch Linux Freeze and Dies

kernel: 2.6.31 - ARCH
Intel(R) Pentium (R) 4 CPU 2.40GHz
Load: 1.29,1.25,0.68
RAM 21%
Running Openbox as WM, same thing happens to KDE as well.
my question is where do I find the log file for system hang? ctrl alt backspace and ctrl alt f1 ... doesn't work when the computer decides to hang up, and the mouse is frozen as well, all keyboard stroke are disregarded.
One of the less serious problem is that firefox freezes temporarily when loading a new non-english website.
Last edited by littlebear (2010-01-08 21:17:14)

together with the above, after a reboot you can look in /var/log/kernel.log and messages.log for possible errors
does it hang during specific circumstances? for instance when running X, when surfing, after a certain time?
Last edited by litemotiv (2010-01-08 21:54:57)

Similar Messages

Arch Linux freezes the whole system in VMware

Hi,
I use Windows Vista as main OS and I'm trying to install Arch on VMware, the problem is, when I log in into the console and try to type anything else, it will crash my host system (Vista).
This is very weird because:
a) I'm running a virtual Gentoo on VMware and it doesn't freeze as Arch.
b) Arch Linux doesn't freeze the system if I use VirtualBox instead of VMware
c) I did a clean install of XP (just for testing purposes) and virtual Arch also crashed the system.
This is confusing me because:
a) Why does Gentoo work and Arch doesn't? Are there base configurations/software so different that one works and the other doesn't?
b) Why can VirtualBox handle Arch and VMware can't?
c) Even a clean install can't handle Arch on VMware? Does this mean it's something wrong in my hardware? How come if Gentoo works on VMware and VirtualBox handles Arch?
Please note that I can't use VirtualBox, I must use VMware and I would really like to use Arch instead of Gentoo. I'm trying to ditch Gentoo and use Arch but this problem is leaving me no choice than to keep using Gentoo...
Any ideas?

Ranguvar wrote:Is it that you can't use VBox, or you must use VMware? There are still other virtual machine apps.
I know, but I want to use VMware. I don't like VirtualBox that much and VMware is better for me. The other virtual machine apps don't even come close to VMware, at least in my point of view. But it doesn't matter, I want to use VMware.
Ranguvar wrote:Anyways, is it the Arch install CD that crashes, or is it Arch after it has been installed? Have you read http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ins … _in_VMWare ?
After installation, it never crashed during the install as far as I remember.
Ranguvar wrote:Do you get any specific error messages from Windows? Are you using the latest version of VMware? Can you at least try VirtualBox to help isolate the problem?
No specific error messages, nothing in the log files, there's nothing anywhere... Yes, I'm using the latest version. What do you mean try VirtualBox to help isolate the problem? I've already used VirtualBox, installed Arch fine and it didn't freeze.
Ranguvar wrote:This is very odd, and may actually indicate a problem with hardware, or something... a virtual machine should NOT be able to bring down the host, under any circumstances. If it can, both the OS and the virtual machine are bugged. Not too much of a surprise, but yeah.
My thoughts exactly but how can be an hardware problem if VirtualBox works just fine? How can it be a virtual machine problem if Gentoo works fine on VMware?
fumbles wrote:Sounds like a problem with VMware (or maybe Vista?) not Arch. Try reinstalling VMware, make sure it is at the lastest version (maybe try even roll back to the previous version), make sure Vista is updated. When you say crash, do you mean BSoD? Or does it just freeze? If it is a BSoD then what is the specific error?
It just freezes, not a BSOD. It is not a problem with Vista because it also happens on XP. Like I said on my first post, I did a clean install of XP, update all drivers and did all Windows updates, installed latest VMware version and the same thing still happened.
Joe_Arch wrote:How much ram are you allocating to Arch? Counterintuitively, you might want to try lowering it. If you allocate too much your host OS freaks out.
I have 2Gb (2x1024Mb) installed on my laptop and I'm using just 256Mb for Arch.
jacko wrote:someone else was having this issue the other day on irc. the fact is a guest OS should NEVER even come close to crashing the host OS. So more then likely this is a bug in VMware and not arch. What arch packages that is causing the conflict with VMware is unapparent, but it's not likely a bug arch can fix.
That was me... I'm not saying it's a bug on Arch, but it's weird that Gentoo doesn't have a problem and Arch does. They must differ somehow, one must use some package where the other doesn't or some global system configuration is different from one to the other, there must be some difference, otherwise, they both would freeze or they both would work...

Arch linux time and date weirdness

A while back I unplugged my arch linux hard drive for a certain reason, and that froze the time on it, so I had to reset the time when i booted it back up. Now, whenever I boot up I get an error message about "the last session is in the future" and I can't boot. I adjusted the bios clock to a few months a ahead and that fixed it, but of course that's not a permanent solution. because of this time error some secure sites like gmail and my online banking site are inaccessible because of invalid certificates.
How do i fix this problem?

k_ibou wrote:
when you receive that message you will be prompt to enter you root password to solve the problem. And it give you the command.
So I recommend you:
1) to set up the bios with the right date and hour.
2) boot to archlinux and do as I said above. You must read carefully the text, you will see a comand.
3) If you have more than one partition if probably that you must do it again for the partition that is set in future. Just copy the command and change / for that you need to repair.
4) when you boot to your DE do this in console: # date --set "Y/M/D h:m"
I think with that should be ok, you can check your rc.conf in the option of hardwareclock
I tried both k_ibou's and Mardoct's solutions and neither worked. I still get the the "...in the future" error upon booting. I also tried one other solution, but apparently hwclock is not the same as BIOS clock. I need to boot into Arch with the CORRECT time in the BIOS, so that I don't get that "future" error when I reboot. I saw no command outside of "mount -o -n remount,rw /", which doesn't seem to actually do anything.

Arch Linux install and management on multiple workstations

Hello
I've been asked to install and manage an installation of 20+ computers at my school. They will be dual-boot with Windows and Linux. Even though i've never used Arch, i chose it for the install because i've heard a lot of good about it. I ask for tips on installing and managing such an installation. All the computers and their disks are identical, and i wish all my systems to be identical as well. There is a separate server with LDAP to which i have no root access, but which holds all user accounts.
Install:
I probably can suffer installing all the systems manually. I'll dedicate one workstation and create an ftp mirror so that i may do a netinstall on the others -- is this an ok idea? Also, how can i setup hostnames? Can DHCP do this?
Management:
The computers will be randomly shut down and powered on as the users please. Perhaps i can boot them all on once a fortnight and use cssh (cluster ssh) to do a system update -- but maybe there is a better way? A local mirror of the packages seems wise. I don't think it's a good idea to create a diskless setup, since if all machines are powered on at once it will significantly decrease boot time and increase network usage, to the annoyance of the users.
I ask for criticism of those ideas and additional hints.
PS. I appreciate the joke of asking someone without a Linux installation what the output of a Linux command is:) (when registering to this forum)

If I was in your position...
Setup arch on one machine, from scratch to production ready, with the following in mind.
-Decide what desktop environment and window manager(s) you want installed/want to support.
-Which applications your users will need
-Which privileges are required or groups your users will need to be in.
-Install everything, and note the names of the packages, everything installed after the base install.
Then make a simple setup sh script that calls pacman to install everything you need and check any settings/group memberships etc, checking the logs afterwords to make sure that there were no issues. You could use this to streamline setup on the rest, or just do what tomk said and clone it.
I wouldn't wait more than a week between updates. You could probably setup a cron job to run pacman and accept the defaults. You should run this on a test machine before the rest though to insure nothing breaks; that happens occasionally.
I would probably choose Gnome as the DE personally. Not that it is any better than the others, but it is what I am familiar with, and seemed a bit less cluttered than KDE last time I used it. Less clutter and easily changeable settings means less time fixing users' mistakes.
You could setup your own local arch repo/mirror and just have the rest of the machines sync from that, it'd save a lot of bandwidth and make updates a bit faster.

Modifying the stock arch linux kernel and kernel timer frequency

so if i understand correctly, if we want to modify the stock arch linux kernel, we have to pull it off of abs. ie "ABSROOT=. abs core/linux" then modify the pkgbuild, uncommenting out make menuconfig and setting the pkgbase name to something different than stock. ie, "linux-custom" then update the checksums followed by importing the gpg keys, ie "gpg --recv-keys 79BE3E4300411886 and gpg --recv-keys 38DBBDC86092693E" for the kernel and patches. then run makepkg -s.
we can't just run make menuconfig on the current kernel that's installed?
and if we pull the linux kernel from abs to customize, does it already come preconfigured with all the arch changes and settings? like its no different than the current one installed?
i just ask because for the most part, i like the current arch kernel, there are just a few minor things i want to change but kept everything else the same as stock arch linux kernel.
also, i herd arch uses 300hz for its timer. whats the benefits and disadvantage of using 300hz over 1000hz for a desktop system?

orlfman wrote:we can't just run make menuconfig on the current kernel that's installed?
No you can't, because the kernel then has to be compiled so the kernel will run with the different tick rate.
orlfman wrote:
and if we pull the linux kernel from abs to customize, does it already come preconfigured with all the arch changes and settings? like its no different than the current one installed?
i just ask because for the most part, i like the current arch kernel, there are just a few minor things i want to change but kept everything else the same as stock arch linux kernel.
As I understand it from the Wiki, the ABS pulls the PKGBUILD and other arch-specific sources from the ArchLinux script server. However, I don't use the ABS, but pull the files I need directly from the ArchLinux SVN and build using makepkg[1] after making the necessary changes.
orlfman wrote:Also, I heard arch uses 300hz for its timer. whats the benefits and disadvantage of using 300hz over 1000hz for a desktop system?
You're in for a technical discussion here. This has a reasonably friendly discussion on kernel tick rates.
Basically, higher tick rates = a higher level of timing precision & higher processor load, lower tick rates = lower level of timing precision & lower processor load.
[1] Technically, I use the clean chroot manager package, which is a wrapper for makechrootpkg (which in turn is a wrapper for running makepkg in a clean chroot if I'm not mistaken).

Arch Linux Donations and 501(c) Status?

I have an opportunity to donate to a non profit organization of my choice through my employer, Kellogg's, who will match my contributions. The first thing that came to mind was the Linux community and specifically, my OS of choice Arch Linux.
The non profit organization however, has to be a 501(c) status. I couldn't find any info regarding Arch's 501(c) status.
Would someone here be able to answer this question?
Last edited by jeff story (2010-08-20 08:34:01)

You might get a faster response if you directly contact one of the devs (Aaron?). Paraphrasing Allan, "nobody that matters follows the forum".
Having posted that, the probability of someone answering your question here within the next 5 minutes (and even as I write this) has increased significantly.
* hopes Kellogg's throw in a large shipment of assorted cereal with its donation, gets out bowl, spoon and milk *
Gah, not trying to go off-topic here, but I just got an idea for a new cereal... Archies! Cereal "1"s and "0"s, maybe some "#!"s, and marshmallow Arch logos. May as well make it "Distros!" and throw in some other marshmallow logos... red Debian swirls... nom nom nom.
Last edited by Xyne (2010-08-20 11:03:54)

Ipod mini freezes and dies

My ipod mini, which I have had since January 2004, has recently started freezing during songs and then completely shutting off. When it freezes the music coming out of the ear buds sounds like a scratched CD and then a moment later it will completly freeze and shut off. When the ipod mini does shut off, the only way I can restart it is if I hold down the menu and select buttons on the click wheel (it won't respond to plugging into a power outlet or my computer). Also, when it does shut down, there is plenty of battery, so i figured that that was not the problem.
I went to the apple store and they told me to restore the ipod mini to its original factory settings and that didn't work. I also read a post on this forum that said to hit the back of the ipod when it begins to skip and freeze. That did not work either. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

yes i have the same problem!
but i've had my ipod for only 5 days!!
and it's a new one because the previous one had the same problem, so i got a new one instead.
which ***** because it's broken !!
aaargh !!

Arch Linux Partitions And Filesystems

Hi everyone!
I'm pretty much new to Linux having used Ubuntu about 2 years back. Recently I've been looking to get a better understanding of the system and wanted to try out a different distro. I searched around and came across Arch. I really liked the principle on which this distribution is based and have decided to give it a go.
I have 2 SATA HDDs in my system.
1. 1TB Seagate --> Windows 7
2. 160GB Seagate --> Windows XP
I want to install Arch on the 160GB HDD. I'll remove XP and the entire HDD will be for Arch.
What I would like to know is the partitions that I should create. Should I go with /boot, /, /var, /usr, /home, /temp? Or lesser number of partitions?
What sizes should they be?
And which ones should be primary and which ones extended, if at all? What file systems should I use for the different partitions? (I had been considering ext4, XFS and Reiser.) It would help if someone would direct me to the appropriate ones for each partition.
Also, I could not understand the difference between the /usr and /home directories. What are their uses? Where do my programs (obtained through Pacman or otherwise) get installed?
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thank you.

According to the wiki:
/ (root) The root filesystem is the primary filesystem from which all other filesystems stem; the top of the hierarchy. All files and directories appear under the root directory "/", even if they are stored on different physical devices. The contents of the root filesystem must be adequate to boot, restore, recover, and/or repair the system. Therefore, certain directories under / are not themselves candidates for separate partitions. (See warning below).
/boot This directory contains the kernel and ramdisk images as well as the bootloader configuration file, and bootloader stages. /boot also stores data that is used before the kernel begins executing userspace programs. This may include saved master boot sectors and sector map files. /boot is essential for booting, but is unique in that it may still be kept on its own separate partition (if required).
/home User data and user specific configuration files for applications are stored in each user's home directory in a file that starts with the '.' character (a "dot file").
/usr While root is the primary filesystem, /usr is the secondary hierarchy, for user data, containing the majority of (multi-)user utilities and applications. /usr is shareable, read-only data. This means that /usr shall be shareable between various hosts and must not be written to, except in the case of system update/upgrade. Any information that is host-specific or varies with time is stored elsewhere.
/tmp directory for programs that require temporary files such as '.lck' files, which can be used to prevent multiple instances of their respective program until a task is completed, at which point the '.lck' file will be removed. Programs must not assume that any files or directories in /tmp are preserved between invocations of the program and files and directories located under /tmp will typically be deleted whenever the system is booted.
/var contains variable data; spool directories and files, administrative and logging data, pacman's cache, the ABS tree, etc. /var exists in order to make it possible to mount /usr as read-only. Everything that historically went into /usr that is written to during system operation (as opposed to installation and software maintenance) must reside under /var.
I really don't see the difference between usr and home on a typical Linux install, especially if you're the only person using the PC.
As for the other storage partition, I am using a primary NTFS partition for storage. I am using NTFS because I have access to the partition inside Windows and Linux, which makes swapping files around easy and I can use all of my Windows files in Linux and vice-versa.

Arch linux install and setup questions

Personally it seems a bit to cumbersome to have to setup xorg etc and is proving to be difficult in getting it to work right. Do they have any arch forks that just auto detect the xorg settings like some of the other distros?
I can't see myself having to setup several of these boxes and doing these install steps one at a time for each one.
It would seem arch could just run a script once installed that would auto sync, download xorg, and setup xorg at the same time.
it would be no different that following each step in the wiki by hand, just via script

itsmeh wrote:Yup it was just an idea , sure people can still do it manual but maybe have something built in to at least take care of the first few steps that most users are going to use
That's the whole point with arch. It's all up to you. Arch doesn't suggest anything for you (exept what you need to get a working linux enviroment).
This is the reason i installed arch. I wanted control over my inviromet and learn more about what's under the hood.

Arch Linux freezes while loading modules

Hello,
I'm having a problem loading Arch.The loading stops while loading the modules and I get get a bug:
BUG: Unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address 7c8b1738
I used the "Don't Panic"-Installer.
Here's my pastebin for more details:
http://pastebin.archlinux.org/20334
Actually I also had a lot of problems with the installation. It wouldn't work until I manually issued the commands mkswap and swapon.
http://pastebin.archlinux.org/20297
I don't know if the loading-problem is derived from the installation-problem, and therefore don't know if this is posted in the right place.
Specs:
Ibm thinkpad x31
Intel Pentium M 1.6 gHz
512 MB
ATI Mobility
I'm coming straight from Ubuntu, so I'm not really a hardcore Linux-user, but I'm learning and hope to be able to have a full-working installation of Arch up and going soon.
Kind regards,
Daniel

I reinstalled Arch(Base-packs only), but I still get the message: "BUG: Unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address xxxxxxxx". The number changes each time.
I was actually able to load Arch successfully one time, and log in as root. Then I changed the locale in rc.conf, uncommentet in locale.gen and rebootet. And there it was again. I tried to change the values back to what they were before I changed them via PXE, but it still wouldn't work. I then tried to reinstall, but I still get the same message. Allthough, the installer-program runs without errors and I don't have to issue mkswap- and swapon-commands manuallly now. At least the installprosess seems to work now
Oh, and by the way... Kubuntu and XP runs without issues on my pc.

Arch Linux iso and img metalinks

I've finally created a script to automatically generate metalinks for the current iso and img downloads using the most recent official mirrorlist
The generated metalinks are currently listed here: http://xyne.archlinux.ca/arch
I might move the links page around on the site but the metalink directory should not change. If any of the site admins would like to include these on the downloads page, send me an email so we can work out the optimal way of doing it (e.g. I could create a custom page that you could scrape and show you how to update the metalinks via the web interface when mirrorlists/downloads change).
For anyone not familiar with metalinks, here's an example of how to use one with aria2c:
aria2c --follow-metalink=mem -j45 -C45 http://xyne.archlinux.ca/metalinks/archlinux-2009.02-ftp-x86_64.iso.metalink
aria2c should be capable of downloading from the metalink and the torrent simultaneously but I gave up trying to get it to work after a couple of minutes.
The Firefox add-on "DownThemAll!" can also handle metalinks.
archlinux-*-all.metalink contains all of the files. Don't use this link unless you either:
a) really need all of the files
b) know how to select files from a metalink
Last edited by Xyne (2009-04-24 22:05:25)

Xyne wrote:@Dieter@be
The post about metalinks on pacman-dev reminded me about this thread. The advantage of the metalinks over torrents, even webseeded torrents, is that you don't need a torrent client to download them. You can use DownThemAll (and maybe other add-ons) to download them directly in Firefox, for example.
exactly, most download apps (FTP clients, non-torrent P2P clients, most download managers, and browsers, with the exception of Opera) don't support torrents directly. and there are many situations where P2P uploading is banned or frowned upon, like corporate/university networks, places with slow uplink, misconfigured hardware, etc...
torrents are awesome, but they're not a perfect fit in every situation. metalinks give you alternates, failover options, P2P-like features - so if there's any way for a download to complete, it will. there's the slightly added complexity & effort of getting em in place, but once that's automated it's usually pretty helpful.
here's a good description of the situation:
http://www.techradar.com/news/computing … ads-611025

ICal freezes and dies when I try to open it

Hi,
since a few days now i can't open my iCal and it is slowly driving me nuts...right now i am back to the "old days" before iSync, manually plotting in all my events into my mobilephone.
When i open the application it looks just fine. I can see the colours of my calenders in the upper left corner (but not the text).
But then nothing more happens, after a while i get the SWOD and then i have to force quit. (before i get the swod the application is active, i can add events etc)
I also can't see any of the events i had in iCal - which is terrifying!!!
Does anyone have a clue what it could be?
Thanx

I finally found something that worked for me!
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=3076133#3076133

Dual boot Windows 7 (64) and Arch Linux (64) problems

Hello:
I am new to Arch Linux and just finished installing the 64bit on my laptop. It had a prebuilt Windows 7 (64) installed which I kept but split the hdd from 160Gb to 80Gb and 80Gb. I installed Arch there and set 4 partitions, all of them as Logical - a 64 MB ext2 /boot partition; a 512 MB swap partition; a 15 GB root partition; and the rest as my /home partition. My partitions look like this:
Disk Drive: /dev/sda
Size: 160041885696 bytes, 160.0 GB
Heads: 255 Sectors per Track: 63 Cylinders: 19457
Name Flags Part Type FS Type [Label] Size (MB)
sda1 Primary Unknown (27) 12889.02
sda2 Boot Primary NTFS 106.93
sda3 Primary NTFS [] 73915.11*
sda5 Logical Linux ext2 65.81*
sda6 Logical Linux 509.97*
sda7 Logical Linux ext2 15002.92*
sda8 Logical Linux ext2 57549.55*
The install was succesful(this was running from the core install cd) and I installed GRUB to my /boot but when I restarted it loaded Windows 7. I have used Knoppix USB disc to boot and see my Arch Linux install files and edited the /boot/gur/menu.lst file.
In Windows I installed EasyBCD 1.7.2 and tried to get NeoGrub bootloader working as a dual boot. I tried getting rid of the boot flag for Windows with cfdisk and setting it to my (Logical) sda5. That did not work. So far the only way I have booted into my Arch Linux install has been by going to the Live CD, choosing "Boot from Existing Linux Install" and editing the command files there.
root (hd0,4)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda3 ro
initrd /kernel26.img
My goal is to get a dual boot working for Windows 7 and Arch Linux 64 and continue installing the Xorg and KDE to Arch. I just don't know what the problem is here. I don't mind reinstalling Arch if something went wrong, but I would like to keep my Windows running in order and add Arch on.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I ran the LiveCD and chose "Install to MBR hd0". I ended up with this:
setup hd(0,1)
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists.....yes
Checking if "/boot/grub/iso9660_stage1_5" exists.....yes
Running "embed /boot/grub/iso9660_stage1_5 (hd0,1)".....failed(this is not fatal)
Running "embed /boot/grub/iso9660_stage1_5 (hd16)".....failed(this is not fatal)
Running "install /boot/grub/stage1 d (hd0,1) /boot/grub/stage2 p (hd0,1) boot/grub/menu.lst".....failed
Error 31: File is not sector aligned
My entry for Windows into the menu.lst looks like this:
# (0) Arch Linux x64
title Arch Linux x64
root (hd0,4)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/3841273c-d91e-41d6-9dbf-716a15d03a01 ro
initrd /kernel26.img
# (1) Arch Linux x64
title Arch Linux x64 Fallback
root (hd0,4)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/3841273c-d91e-41d6-9dbf-716a15d03a01 ro
initrd /kernel26-fallback.img
# (2) Windows 7
title Windows 7
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

Share files between Arch Linux and XP Home

Hi, I have an Arch Linux desktop and a XP Home Laptop both connected to a Billion 7401 ADSL Router to get to the internet. If I am using any computer sometimes I have a need to use files from the other one, and from an external HDD connected to the XP laptop. I have been googling for the last 3 weeks but could not find a concrete solution to this issue, maybe because I don't understand much about networking or p2p, and samba. Looks like I have to spend more money on either another computer to be setup as a server or on a router or hub or switch? But I thought my Billion Router is already a router? I wonder if you can please help me to solve this problem or point me to a good link? Thanks a lot.

SSHFS is another more Linux native option for sharing files (and it can be compatible with XP too using special programs).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSHFS
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Sshfs
As I understand it XP Home uses simple file sharing which can be really insecure depending on your needs. Once when I ran a computer with Linux and was needing to set up a samba share I discovered massive issues since (at the time) I was connecting regularly over a shared wireless network among untrusted persons. I ended up looking into using SSH tunneling to overcome the issues associated with XP Home's Simple File sharing and that is when I came across SSHFS.
Whatever you do make sure to read this about XP Home's "Simple Filesharing"
http://www.centerlineit.com/index.php?v … q&Itemid=9
It's important you understand it.
Last edited by davidm (2010-04-12 04:01:34)

[SOLVED] Arch Linux Duke (2007) Fails to Boot

Folks, I have a unique and challenging problem that has exhausted my Arch Linux skills, and so I am now turning to you.
I have a vintage Pentium Pro 200 system (that’s 200 MHz folks! – 200 MHz 686 architecture – the original 686!), two CPUs, running a dual boot between Windows NT 4.0 and Arch Linux Duke (2007). It has 512 MB of RAM and a 120 GB hard drive, partitioned up between Windows NT and Linux. I built this system new in 2007, hence the dated version of Arch. It has run like a charm all these years, granted not getting that much use. After about a year of no use at all, I fired the system up last week to help with a little research for a blog post I was writing on networking Windows NT 4.0 and Mac OS 8.6. Windows NT 4.0 fired right up with no issue, and after I was done testing what needed to be tested I tried to boot over to Arch.
After a year of disuse, Arch unexpectedly and stubbornly refused to boot. The boot process started up just fine, but towards the end, it declared that it could not mount the root file system on the root device and took a kernel panic and stopped. My Arch skills have gotten a bit rusty in the last few years, but I dusted them off and went to work. My guess was a file system or superblock error. Arch wouldn’t boot, but I dragged out my trusty RIPLinux 2.9 Rescue Live CD and fired it up. It came right up and ran, and I was able to mount the Arch partition and view all the files… everything seemed to be there; it just wouldn’t boot. Windows NT 4.0 AND RIPLinux both boot and run on the machine, so the hardware is fine as well.
A little information on the disk layout. Windows NT 4.0 is in the first partition on the hard drive. The extended partition has a second Windows NT 4.0 partition (sort of a /home partition for Windows NT 4.0), followed by the main Arch partition (the one I am trying to boot), followed by a swap partition and then the largest partition, which I use to share data between Arch and Windows NT 4.0 (I have loaded an ext2/3 driver into Windows NT 4.0 and it happily accesses the Linux partitions on the box).
RIPLinux’s e2fsck did find some issues with the Arch partition and I had it repair them all. I checked again afterwards that all the files were still there, and they were. With the partition now known to be clean, and the superblock repaired from one of the backups, all should have been well. However, Arch still wouldn’t (and still won’t) boot.
RIPLinux has a kind of a chain loader function, so I had it attempt to start up Arch for me. However, this was flummoxed by the fact that Arch addresses all my hard drive partitions as /dev/sdax and RIPLinux addresses them as /dev/hdax. Hence, without a common language, it was hard to get the one to start the other. Still, using this function, I have been able to get a crippled version of Arch running on the machine again. No modules had been loaded, and so it couldn’t do almost anything, but there it was (and is), Arch Linux Duke, at the CLI level. From there, I can see all the files, I can move freely in and out of my user account and the root account, but I can’t make the thing actually boot properly.
If you have read this far, you are a trooper. Summarizing what I know, the hardware is good, the file system is clean, the superblock is good, I can mount it cleanly from a live CD and I can chain load a crippled version of Arch. Here is the boot process blow-by-blow. When I try to do a normal boot, the Windows NT 4.0 loader passes control to the Lilo boot sector I have placed on hda1 (sda1 in Duke’s parlance). Lilo takes over, present a menu and when I select Duke, takes off. Arch Linux Duke starts to boot. It gets a good long way along, all the way along to:
:: Loading udev events [Pass]
:: Mount root Read-only
:: Checking file systems
This is where it stops.
The next thing I see is:
/dev/sda6
The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2 filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2 filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else) then the superblock is corrupt and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
E2fsck –b 8193 <device>
I then get a sort of character based splash screen that says
**********FILE SYSTEM CHECK FAILED ****************************
* Please repair manually and reboot. Note that the root file system
* is currently mounted read-only. To remount it read-write, type:
* mount –n –o remount,rw /. When you exit the maintenance
* shell, the system will reboot automatically
Give root password for maintenance
At this point, I give the root password and enter the maintenance shell as root. I typed in “mount” and the first entry I got back is
/dev/sda6 on / type ext3 (rw)
This is exactly the root partition that the start up complains about. It is clearly there. I can see it, I can walk around it… it is clearly there. Why won’t it boot? Despite the message, the superblock is fine – it passes every test e2fsck can throw at it.
At this point, I did a “e2fsck /dev/hda6 (which is how RIPLinux would have passed it into Arch” and it says it is “clean”. I suspect that the Superblock message is because Arch sees root as sda6, while RIP passed it in as hda6...
Deciding to see what Arch would be seeing as it tried to set things up in the boot sequence, I tried the following next:
# mknod “/dev/root2” b 3 6
(“3” because RIPLinux refers to my hard drive as IDE, while Arch refers to it by major number “8”, which is SCSI. By the way, it IS an IDE drive – not sure why Arch insists on using the sdx nomenclature instead of hdx)
Then I entered “mount /dev/root2 /mnt/hda6” and “ls /mnt/hda6”
All was well. I can make the node, I can mount it, and I can see the contents. All is clearly well, but something is clearly wrong enough that Arch can’t boot.
I am totally out of ideas. I have tried every trick I know and am out of tricks. I would welcome any insights as to what I could try to get this venerable Arch installation back on its legs.
By the way, the key section of the /etc/lilo.conf file (lest anyone want to know) is:
image = /boot/vmlinuz26
root = /dev/sda6
label = ArchLinux-Duke
initrd = /boot/kernel26.img
read-only
I am stumped. Thanks in advance for any and all pointers you may be able to offer.
Last edited by mac57 (2014-06-02 17:42:21)

Folks, thanks for all your helpful comments, and I wanted to report back to you that I finally overcame the issue, and ArchLinux-Duke (2007) is once again executing flawlessly on my old Pentium Pro 200 system. I won't bother reporting here all the blind allies I went down as I tried to figure out what was wrong, but in the end, literally moments before I was about to give up and overwrite my Arch installation with a new Linux variant (antiX seemed well suited for such old and low power hardware), my attention was drawn to a note I had made in my files back in 2007 about a problem with similar symptoms. In that case, I had just deleted ZenWalk Linux from the hard drive (both Arch and Zen had been on the drive), and merged several partitions to make use of the newly free space. This had changed Arch's view of the drive lettering, and what had been its /dev/sddx root device was now /dev/sdcx. Arch failed to boot, throwing off the same errors I was seeing now. I wish I had recalled that note a month or so ago! It would have saved me a lot of work and a lot of frustration.
At any rate, as a last step, and testing the idea that maybe the drive lettering had changed for some reason, I repeatedly manually booted Arch, specifying root=/dev/sda6, then /dev/sdb6, then /dev/sdd6, and finally, /dev/sdc6. Eureka! Arch now considered itself to be on /dev/sdc6 whereas previously it had been on /dev/sda6. This got me part way there, but the boot failed at the filesystem check stage and threw me into root. I disabled the file system check in /etc/rc.sysinit and got farther. Then I cleaned up /etc/fstab to agree with the new sdc naming, and I was back on the air fully.
So, what had happened was that Arch had changed its view of the drive it was on from sda6 to sdc6. While I could not understand why this "sudden" change had occurred, at least I had a solution, and had Arch back up and running.
Trolling through the rest of my notes, I found the answer. In 2012, the Tekram SCSI card in the machine failed, and I ultimately replaced it with an Adaptec card. The Tekram card did not have a BIOS segment on it. The Adaptec card did. My guess is that this caused the two internal SCSI devices I have built into the system (Iomega ZIP and Jaz respectively) to be enumerated first, claiming the "sda" and "sdb". device names. That left "sdc" for the root device, and that is where Arch went next. This is my guess anyway.
I should have caught this issue back in 2012, at the time, but from my notes, I can see that I tested the new card thoroughly using the Windows NT 4.0 side of the machine, but never thought to bring up Arch as well. Hence, this problem lay dormant for two years, before I attempted to fire up Arch last month and blundered right into it.
It has not all been bad. I have learned more about the ext2 and ext3 file systems and superblocks in the intervening time than I will ever need to use. I have learned how to manually boot Linux on a machine whose BIOS is so old that it cannot address the disk cylinder that the kernel is on and I have completely refreshed the many general Linux skills that used to just flow from my finger tips. It has been a frustrating experience, but ultimately a successful and useful one.
Just wanted to let everyone know that this is now [SOLVED]. I would mark the post as such, but I don't see any obvious way to do that. Thanks again everyone.

Arch Linux Freeze and Dies

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